-- THE ARCHIVE --

SINGAPORE
Judicial CP - April 2001

The New Paper, Singapore, 2 April 2001

Killed over a pot of curry

AH Lone (above), 20, Soe Win, 31, and Muang Soe, 31, were charged with manslaughter in High Court on Friday.

The trio were also charged with entering Singapore illegally from the Mon district of Myanmar and overstaying.

All three pleaded guilty to the charges.

Each of them were sentenced to seven years in jail and six strokes of the cane for manslaughter.

For illegal entry and overstaying, Ah Lone was given one month and three strokes, while Soe Win and Muang Soe were each given three months and six strokes.

The sentences for the two charges for each of them are to run consecutively.

INJURIES

Dr Gilbert Lau, the forensic pathologist who conducted Win Aung's autopsy, said that Win Aung had died of "a severe head injury".

Last June, a 45-year-old illegal immigrant's decomposed body was found in the bird sanctuary on Marina Promenade, off Republic Avenue. The undergrowth there was home to several Myanmar nationals, three of whom caused the man's death. It was hunger and fear that drove these men to desperation, reports TANYA FONG

A POT of beef curry and a handful of rice.

Not sufficient to feed one man fully.

But enough to get him killed.

On June 18 last year, Win Aung died over the meagre supper he was cooking in the undergrowth a stone's throw away from the National Stadium.

The 45-year-old was clubbed to death by three men.

KILLED BY FAMILY

Two of them, Soe Win, 31, and Muang Soe, 31, were his nephews.

The third, Ah Lone, 20, was his cousin.

Besides blood ties, another bond bound the four together in Singapore.

They were all illegal immigrants from Myanmar.

Fleeing from poverty in their country, they entered Singapore illegally in search of jobs but were stalked daily by the fear of being discovered and deported.

Home was a couple of canvases strung over branches in the jungle.

Their beds were discarded wooden doors scavenged out of garbage bins.

It was a dark dismal place, infested by mosquitoes. There was no electricity or water.

The nearby sea was their source of water and they would haul water in plastic soft-drink bottles.

In the day, they would hang around Golden Mile Plaza along Beach Road, hoping to get picked up for work.

At night, after a hard day's work, they would walk back from Beach Road to their hide-out at Marina Promenade.

The victim lived there with his brother, Ye Aung, and Ah Lone.

Ah Lone was hopping from one construction site to another in search of jobs when he met Muang Soe and Soe Win at the Golden Mile Plaza.

The three became inseparable and stayed in the shanty with Win Aung and his brother.

That night, the trio walked back to their den after the usual drinking bout at the Golden Mile Plaza.

When they reached the place, they saw the curry bubbling in a pot over charcoals on the ground.

There was no one around.

So, they decided to help themselves to the food.

But as they were about to eat, Win Aung descended on them.

He scolded them for eating his food without his permission and hit Ah Lone with a stick.

It sparked off a wild fight in the dark with kin attacking kin.

LEFT TO DIE

As Win Aung shouted to his brother, Ye Aung, to come and thrash the thieves, the young men panicked.

Ah Lone picked up a stick and hit Win Aung a couple of times until the older man fell to the ground.

el,4 At this point, according to Ah Lone, Muang Soe passed a stone to Soe Win and Soe Win threw it at the fallen Win Aung. Then, all three took to their heels.

Win Aung was left alone to die in the bird sanctuary.

THE CASE

WIN Aung, a 45-year-old Myanmar national, was beaten with wooden sticks and left to die in the forested area. His body was so badly decomposed that his hair fell out, exposing his badly-cracked skull.

His corpse was found last June.

The Police Intelligence Department received information about the killing and worked hand-in-hand with the Special Investigation Department.

They carried out island-wide inquiries and established the identities of the other three Myanmar nationals.

They also combed areas popular with Myanmar nationals, such as the Golden Mile Plaza.

It took less than a week to solve the case.

The three men were arrested after police ambushed them near the Woodlands MRT station on June 23.

The Straits Times, Singapore, 4 April 2001

Army sergeant gets jail, cane for raping teen

He was obsessed by her even after she rejected him

A YOUNG man was so obsessed with an 18-year-old student that he took her to his flat when she was drunk and raped her twice.

Army second sergeant Chang will receive six strokes of the cane.

And because of that obsession, Michael Chang Ying Leong, a 23-year-old second sergeant with the army, was yesterday sentenced to eight years' jail and six strokes of the cane.

In sentencing him, Justice Kan Ting Chiu noted that Chang thought he was 'wooing' the girl.

He also pointed out that although the accused did not use violence, threaten or wrongfully confine his victim, the youth had not admitted his guilt and instead claimed trial.

At the end of a seven-day trial, Chang was convicted of raping the girl in the early hours of Dec 19, 1999, at his flat in Yung An Road in Jurong.

Throughout the hearing, he denied he had done so, reiterating that the girl had agreed to have sex with him.

He met the girl on Dec 1 that year when she was working as a part-time waitress at the Sole Luna pub in Holland Village.

Chang dated the girl once - on Dec 10, 1999. That evening, when he expressed his interest in starting a relationship with her over dinner, she rejected him.

On the night of the rape, the girl reluctantly accepted his invitation to go to the Sole Luna pub for some drinks with him and a group of his friends.

She became drunk and Chang got a friend to take them to his flat.

There, he raped her twice when she was too intoxicated to protest and fight back.

In their closing arguments, Deputy Public Prosecutors Mohamed Nasser Ismail and Jared Pereira said that between Dec 10 and Dec 18, 1999, Chang had called and paged the victim at least 27 times from his mobile phone.

He also tried numerous other times from his office and home phones during that period but the victim only responded to a few of the pages, and then it was to stop his persistent paging.

Despite her rejection, he still regarded her as his girlfriend. He was obsessed with her, they said.

The DPPs argued that Chang did not take 'due care' or pay attention to the victim's wishes on the night of the rape.

Instead, he assumed that because the victim did not object, she implicitly agreed to have sex, they said.

Chang stood expressionless in the dock when the sentence was pronounced.

The girl, who was in court to hear the verdict, said: 'I don't hate him. But I just want to get on with my life now.'

The Straits Times, Singapore, 6 April 2001

Bus driver molested 15-year-old

He lied to her about where the bus was headed, and molested her after refusing to open the doors

By Elena Chong

A TRANS-ISLAND bus driver molested a 15-year-old girl who was the lone passenger in his bus after he lied that it would take her to Chinatown.

Bus driver Kevin Mohan S. Chinniah was sentenced to 30 months' jail and four strokes of the cane.

But the bus which Kevin Mohan S. Chinniah, 43, drove on Jan 8 was for a loop service for the Woodlands area.

When he returned to the Woodlands interchange at 10.25 am, after all the other passengers had got off along the route, he refused to open the doors to let the Malaysian girl out.

He parked the vehicle at the bus bay and told her to sit with him in the back seat, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Monica Wong Li Tein.

The girl, who lives with her father here, refused.

Mohan then went up to her and fondled her right breast. She scolded him and got up to stop him. He also stood up. She then asked him to open the doors but he ignored her.

When she went near the front door, Mohan asked where she was from and fondled her breasts again.

When she tried to push him away, he touched her pubic area.

Again, she told him to open the door but he refused.

When Mohan said he wanted to meet her again that evening, she agreed as she wanted to trap him. They arranged to meet at the Woodlands MRT station.

Before letting her alight, he touched her breasts again and told her not to tell anyone about what he did.

That evening, the girl called her foster-uncle and told him what had happened.

He accompanied her to Woodlands MRT station and kept watch from a distance.

When Mohan met her, she signalled to her foster-uncle, who called the police. They then arrested him.

Counsel Niraiselvan said in his mitigation plea that his client was overcome with temptation.

A first offender, he was very remorseful for what he had done. His wife is looking after their 3½-year-old daughter who was born premature and has a hole in the heart.

Mohan, who has been with the bus company for 11 years, had claimed trial but decided to plead guilty mid-way through cross-examination of the victim.

In sentencing him to 30 months' jail and four strokes of the cane, District Judge Audrey Lim took into account the fact that he had touched the girl three times and that the molest continued for a very long time.

Mohan could have been jailed for up to 10 years and caned for wrongful restraint during the molest.

The New Paper, Singapore, 9 April 2001

Christmas punches land him in jail

By Andre Yeo

JAILED

On April 3, See Seng Guek was convicted of two charges of moneylending without a licence and rioting.
He was sentenced to 18 months' jail, fined $10,000 and given six strokes of the cane.
For moneylending, he could have been fined up to $200,000 and jailed up to a year or both.
For rioting, he could have been jailed up to five years and caned.
Ng Chee Peng had earlier pleaded guilty to rioting and was sentenced to a year's jail and given six strokes of the cane.
Lai Teck Guan, 26, was sentenced to seven years' corrective training and given six strokes of the cane for rioting. He was given another three strokes for taking drugs.
Lim Poh Hin was jailed four months for being part of an unlawful assembly.

SHE asked for help. Instead, she received a punch in the face and her boyfriend was roughed up as well.

The Straits Times, Singapore, 18 April 2001

Stiffer sentence for vicious attack on wife

He poured boiling water, attacked her with a chopper

Martin Yong, 47, unemployed, had poured boiling water on his wife while she slept, then attacked her with a chopper.

Three years, 12 strokes for Yong from the CJ.

For the viciousness of the assault, the CJ yesterday more than doubled Yong's sentence to three years in jail and 12 strokes of the cane.

Yong had earlier been sentenced to 15 months' jail and four strokes of the cane for fracturing Madam Ng Hong New's facial bones with the chopper at their Ang Mo Kio home on Dec 22 last year.

These injuries were inflicted after he poured boiling water onto her neck, cheek, abdomen and hip. For this, he had been given four months' jail, to run concurrently.

Madam Ng, 42, a coffeeshop assistant, was warded for three days.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Hee Mee Lin said the sentence was manifestly inadequate for such a vicious attack.

Yong, she said, had repeatedly and continually rained blows on his defenceless wife, and had used boiling water to inflict pain and disfigure her.

Her face was fractured in the unprovoked attack and Madam Ng had to be hospitalised.

'This was a totally unprovoked and unwarranted attack. The victim had neither done nor said anything to warrant such a attack,' she said.

She said the district judge had failed to consider that the injuries would scar and disfigure the woman for life, nor had he taken into account the mental and psychological trauma she suffered.

Yong had not shown any remorse, she added.

The DPP said the judge had wrongly inferred that Yong's delusional disorder would have impaired his mental faculties, when there was no such evidence to back this.

Yong, who was not represented yesterday, said he was very sorry. He told the court that he had to take care of his elderly mother and his younger child while his wife worked. He then broke down in court.

The CJ, who read out the district judge's grounds of decision, said Yong had suspected that his wife had been unfaithful and had demanded sex on the day of the attack.

She agreed but when she refused to remove her upper garments, he suspected that she was hiding something and attacked her.

Yong said in his written plea that his wife and three sons had forgiven him, and that he would never abuse her again.

The Straits Times, Singapore, 21 April 2001

Lounge manager was stabbed to death by gang

One of the six attackers -- who had fled to Malaysia but was arrested on his return -- gets 10 years' jail

By Elena Chong

SIX men ganged up on a karaoke-lounge manager for allegedly molesting one of their women friends, the High Court heard yesterday.

Now remorseful, Loh will also get 10 strokes of the cane.

Mr Ong Chai Poh, 37, later died from three stab wounds, inflicted during the attack on a vacant piece of land off Punggol 24th Avenue on Feb 11, 1997.

Loh Beng Lea, 28, fled to Malaysia after the stabbing. He was arrested on Dec 5 last year when he returned to Singapore.

Yesterday, the unemployed man admitted committing culpable homicide with Randolph Gene Koh, 47, and four others by stabbing Mr Ong with knives. Koh is now serving 10 years' jail for the offence. The other four are still at large.

In sentencing Loh to 10 years in prison and 10 strokes of the cane, Judicial Commissioner Chan Seng Onn told Loh he was very lucky the DPP did not proceed with a murder charge.

'You have a life ahead of you but you decided to engage in acts of gangsterism which cannot be tolerated and call for a deterrent sentence,' he said.

He said Koh, sentenced in 1997, was not caned as he had a mental abnormality then.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Han Ming Kuang said Mr Ong and six friends arrived at the Punggol seafront in the early hours of Feb 11, 1997, to drink beer. They had been drinking earlier at Lucky Crystal Karaoke Lounge in Serangoon Road, which Mr Ong managed.

Loh's group arrived later. Among them were Koh, his wife and three women.

Some time after 5 am, after Loh and most of his group had left the place, Mr Ong allegedly molested the sister of Loh's girlfriend.

When Loh heard about her allegation, he called Koh. The two then picked up some unknown accomplices and knives in Havelock Road before proceeding to Punggol.

Koh confronted Mr Ong. When he denied the allegation, Koh stabbed him repeatedly in the face, chest and back. Loh and another man, who was armed with a letter opener, fought with Mr Ong, who was then stabbed by some others.

In mitigation, defence counsel Lim Swee Tee said his client was deeply remorseful. He had played a more minor role than Koh.

But DPP Han said Koh could not have committed the offence without Loh. He also said it was clear that Loh and his accomplices were the aggressors.

The Straits Times, Singapore, 21 April 2001

Schizophrenic killer jailed for life

A SCHIZOPHRENIC who stabbed a seaman to death was yesterday jailed for life and ordered to be given six strokes of the cane.

A man with a history of aggression, Wee (centre) has been suffering from chronic schizophrenia for the last 20 years. -- LIANHE WANBAO

Wee Eng Jong, 45, who has suffered from the mental illness for 20 years, had been in and out of Woodbridge Hospital and had a history of aggression, the court heard.

On the night of Nov 8 last year, Wee stabbed Mr Foo Wah Soon, 47, 15 times after an argument at a coffeeshop at Block 30, Toa Payoh Lorong 5.

Yesterday, Wee, who was charged originally with murder, pleaded guilty to the amended charge of culpable homicide.

According to Woodbridge Hospital's associate consultant, Dr Tommy Tan, Wee has chronic schizophrenia and needs life-long treatment so that he will not be a danger to society.

Wee, the court heard, had often absconded from Woodbridge Hospital while being admitted.

The unemployed man was first admitted in 1981 for hitting his mother. He was warded subsequently for throwing various things out from his Toa Payoh flat. He also became aggressive when he was not given money.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Lit Cheng said that on the evening of Nov 8, the victim, Mr Foo, and his friend were at the coffee- shop at Block 30 when they saw Wee disturbing a female beer promoter by blocking her way. The two men intervened.

That led to a fight between Wee and Mr Foo at the open space in front of the block at 10.50 pm.

Mr Foo died in hospital shortly after midnight. He had two fatal knife wounds in the heart and another two on his upper right arm.

When police arrested Wee later in Toa Payoh, he had a knife handle in his shorts pocket. Police found a blood-stained broken knife blade at the scene of the killing.

Wee told the police in his statement that a woman had scolded him after he used the coffeeshop toilet.

He claimed that Mr Foo, who had on previous occasions bought him drinks, assaulted him. He did not understand why, so he stabbed Mr Foo continuously with a knife.

The DPP said Wee, who has nine previous convictions, had a history of aggression and violence and urged the court to impose the maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The Straits Times, Singapore, 27 April 2001

Man who raped 58-year-old woman jailed

AN INDIAN national charged with molesting and raping a 58-year-old cleaner was yesterday sentenced to 10 years' jail and 14 strokes of the cane.

Rapist Solaiyan faces three other charges.

The prosecution pressed for a deterrent sentence against Solaiyan Arumugam, 26, who claimed repeatedly that he was innocent.

The prosecution's case was that on the evening of July 31, the victim spotted Solaiyan on her way home. As she walked along the footpath, he grabbed her from behind, covered her mouth and nose, dragged her into some bushes, and raped her.

'I had nothing to do with this offence,' Solaiyan told the court after Judicial Commissioner Choo Han Teck convicted him of squeezing the cleaner's breast and raping her.

'There is no connection between me and this case. Please help me.'

He said he was prepared to accept any punishment for an offence he had committed, but in this case, he did not rape the woman.

'Please believe me. I am prepared to walk on fire to say I have not committed this offence,' he added.

JC Choo sentenced him to 10 years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane for rape, and two years and two strokes for molest. The jail sentences are concurrent.

Solaiyan, who was unrepresented, said in his defence that he had never seen the woman before, nor was he present at the scene of the crime.

He claimed the woman was lying when she said that she had seen the side of his face under a nearby lamp-post.

In asking for a stiff sentence, Deputy Public Prosecutor Adriel Loh said it was in the public's interest that the court send a clear message that those who dare threaten the streets will be dealt with severely.

Solaiyan, he said, had lain in wait like a predator, using darkness as a cover for his dastardly act.

He had used force in gripping the victim's throat and covering her mouth to stop her from screaming.

He had not relented despite the small-built woman telling him that she was sick and needed to take her medication.

'He was oblivious to her trauma and fixated on satisfying himself,' DPP Loh added.

Solaiyan has three other outstanding charges which will be dealt with later.